Book Review: Angelfire

Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton - (2011 Debut Author Challenge: 2 of 12)

"First there are nightmares. Every night Ellie is haunted by terrifying dreams of monstrous creatures that are hunting her, killing her.

"Then come the memories. When Ellie meets Will, she feels on the verge of remembering something just beyond her grasp. His attention is intense and romantic, and Ellie feels like her soul has known him for centuries. On her seventeenth birthday, on a dark street corner at midnight, Will awakens Ellie's power, and she knows that she can fight the creatures that stalk her in the grim darkness. Only Will holds the keys to Ellie's memories, whole lifetimes of them, and when she looks at him, she can no longer pretend anything was just a dream.

"Now she must hunt. Ellie has power that no one else can match, and her role is to hunt and kill the reapers that prey on human souls. But in order to survive the dangerous and ancient battle of the angels and the Fallen, she must also hunt for the secrets of her past lives and truths that may be too frightening to remember." (Cover blurb on book).

Before I joined the 2011 Debut Author Challenge, I found an interview with the author of this book on a web page. The cover and the cover blurb caught my interest immediately. When I found the 2011DAC a few days later, I knew I had to sign up. What better excuse could I possibly find to buy more books? And once I registered, this book was added to the list without a second thought.

After finishing it, I have to say that I'm glad I read it. From what I've heard, a lot of people are writing angels these days, but this is the first book I've read in a while including that kind of subject matter. It was a nice change from vampires, which are okay, but I've read a lot of those recently. Besides, this book also deals with reapers, which are pretty awesome if you ask me.

The main character was realistic. Her voice had a nice flow to it, and I found myself reading a lot faster than I wanted to... because I like to make my books last at least two days. The side characters all had their own voices and Ellie's friends all sound like teenagers, which was good. Of course, like always, my favorite character was a side character and a villain.

Over all, I found the storyline to be engaging. The overarching plot line was interesting and I found myself wanting to find out more about Ellie's character, as well as the world of the reapers. And while all of this supernatural-big-picture stuff is happening, there's the part of Ellie that is desperately clinging to her old life, which makes it easy for the reader to relate to her.

On the whole, I genuinely liked this book and I'm looking forward to the second book.

This book can be found in stores and online:

Angelfire

Happy reading!

PS: I think I'm doing away with the rating system from here on out. I'm finding that it's really difficult to determine what sort of rating I would give a book, when my opinion tends to change on a day to day basis. If you would like to see the rating system continue for book reviews, let me know! I'm willing to keep it if it's important to you.